Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Do you have a new ereader? If you’re looking for something to read several of my friends have new releases this month. The genres are varied, so there is bound to be one to suit your tastes.

A Medieval Yule by Kaye Manro

A fortnight ago she left him.

Marcus of Windom stood alone in an empty castle without Lady Liana

by his side. The frigid winds of the Yule Season pressed upon him. He

pulled the parchment from whence he carried it and read her chilling

parting words once again. I can no longer live as your lady-wife… If ever

she returned would her sensual warmth be enough to melt the ice she

had caused to form around his broken heart?

Purchase A Medieval Yule

The Curse of Gremdon by Ciara Knight

In a world where marriage is forbidden, sex is only granted to male warriors, and the outer realm is full of murderous creatures, Arianna fights to protect the life of her only living relative, her brother.

Tardon, an elite warrior, is granted anything he desires by the Elders, but finds little joy in the voluptuous women presented to him. Born for the bloodlust found only in battle, complicated emotions emerge when he discovers his equal in the alluring warrior, Arianna.

Charged by the Elders with saving the castle from attack, Tardon and Arianna risk the curse when they traverse the vast outer realm to retrieve serum from the Tree of Life. If successful, the Elders have promised Tardon the right to marry, and Arianna the cure for her brother’s death fever. Will their love carry them through or will the discovery of a great deception be their ultimate demise?

Purchase The Curse of the Gremdon

Dragons at Midnight by Selena Illyria

One dragon is hot enough, but three can make this tiger shifter burn in the

most delightful ways.Tiger shifter Louisa thought she’d ring in the New

Year all alone. Little did she know that three younger dragon shifters plan

on making sure she celebrates things right. Add a little steam, a few

dragon shifters with dirty minds, and some creative use of furniture and

New Year’s Eve becomes the perfect scorching-hot party for four.
.

Purchase Dragons at Midnight

Marked for Surrender by Jennifer Leeland

When Zevon and Christophe are accused of being traitors to Nylar, they both believe the truth will come out and justice will prevail. But the Blueshift Brotherhood has targeted them and the two men end up with the Nyral Mistresses to be broken. Hope seems gone for the two lovers and they come face to face with their inner secrets when they face the most infamous Mistress of all: the Ball Breaker.

Mistress Andia Cyrus has broken thousands of criminals, turning dominant men into slaves. The two men she’s handed this time, however, are not the usual type she’s used to. They seem to be innocent, for one thing. For another, they’re in love. And for another, she’s starting to fall for them. She begins to dig deeper and soon finds a Blueshift Brotherhood assassin on her tail.

Fate seems to drag them together and Andia, Christophe and Zevon discover they can only survive if they are marked for surrender.

Purchase Marked for Surrender

Make Me Shiver by Aline Hunter

When Lacey loses control of her vehicle and finds herself trapped by ice and snow, she knows there’s only one person to call for help. Unfortunately, Michael may cause more turmoil than relief. She’s lusted for the gorgeous Dom ever since she first laid eyes on him. Trouble is, he doesn’t do vanilla and she’s not a submissive…or is she?

Michael’s hungered for Lacey for months, so when he notices her fleeting glimpses and blush-stained cheeks as he rescues her from an altercation with a guardrail, he decides it’s time to push the sultry beauty’s boundaries…only to discover Lacey’s not as reserved as she thinks.

Physical attraction blossoms into something neither anticipates, taking Michael and Lacey beyond kink, dominance and submission. Their newfound connection is strong. until a flame from Michael’s past returns, shatters the fragile trust he and Lacey have only just developed and threatens to destroy something neither wants to surrender.

Purchase Make Me Shiver

Melt by Natalie Anderson

When two frozen hearts collide…

Emma Reed closed her heart to love years ago after a lifetime spent getting kicked around foster homes and bad relationships. Now she’s on a mission to prove she deserves her recent award to paint a mural for a research base in Antarctica. Nothing and no one is going to get in her way.

After months working in recovery zones around the world, Hunter Wilson planned to escape everything this holiday season by rebuilding a lab at the Kiwi Research Base. Alone. No to family, no to fun. It’s isolation not intimacy he’s aching for. But when he sees the determined artist, that ache becomes an urge – after all, shouldn’t someone show her what two people can do with twenty-four hours of brilliant sunlight?

In the coldest place on earth, even the most frozen hearts can melt.

Purchase Melt

Don’t they sound great? I can’t wait to read the above books. All I have to do is find some reading time.

Do you intend to do some reading during the coming holidays? Do you think there will be ereaders, books or gift cards in your Christmas stocking?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Kaki Warner, the author of Pieces of Sky is one of my discoveries of 2011. I enjoy the way her characters spring from the page and, despite Western historicals not being my book of choice, I enjoy the way Ms. Warner portrays the setting in her books. I’m definitely a fan.

Jessica stepped from the cabin into a breeze that felt like a gasp from hell. Squinting against sunlight so stark it robbed the world of color, she looked around.

page 28, Pieces of Sky

and here’s another slightly longer one:

He smiled.
Just that.
Yet it changed his entire face. The whiteness of such lovely teeth against his black mustache and sun-browed skin was contrast enough, but the transformation from scowl to rakish grin was astonishing. Boggling.
Oh my. Dimples too.

page 33, Pieces of Sky

On a stagecoach traveling through New Mexico Territory, Jessica Thornton is a long way from the cool mists and lush gardens of her native England. An authoress and milliner, she carries the weight of a scandalous secret-a horrible shame that has brought her to the West on a desperate search for the only family she can trust: her brother.

No one prepared Jessica for the heat and the hardships. And no one prepared her for a man like Brady Wilkins. For, despite the rancher’s rough-hewn appearance and her own misgivings, Jessica must put her life in his hands after their stagecoach crashes. And she begins to see the man behind the callused hands and caustic wit. A man strong enough to carve out a home in the wilderness, brave enough to fight for his own, and passionate enough to restore her faith in herself-and in her heart.

Purchase Pieces of Sky

While you’re here, check out my sticky post above and comment to go into the draw to win books!

What are you reading this week? Leave a link to your teaser or post your teaser in the comments section.

Today I’d like to welcome debut author Julia Phillips Smith. I met Julia online several years ago and you couldn’t find a nicer person. She’s passionate about writing, music and the arts, and I love visiting her blog to see the world through her eyes.

Julia’s book, Saint Sanguinus, is due out next week. When you visit her website, definitely take the time to check out her book trailers, which she wrote and directed herself. Over to Julia…

For many artists, no matter what the medium, the sense of dancing to a different drummer began early in life and never eased off. If you were anything like me, when you were a kid, you didn’t do things the way the other kids did them.

It wasn’t out of a sense of being contrary, for contrary’s sake. I honestly wasn’t attracted to the white North Star sneakers with blue trim that everyone else just HAD to have. I did, in fact, have a pair of North Stars. But mine were blue with yellow trim. I just liked mine better.

When everyone else curled their hair back and blew it fluffy dry like Farrah Fawcett, I wore my hair straight and long with bangs, or in braids. I just liked my hairstyle better.

When everyone else was in love with Shaun Cassidy from The Hardy Boys, I was mad for Scottish lead singer Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers. I just thought he was way cuter.

This has never stopped. When everyone couldn’t get enough of Rachel and Ross, I settled in to watch the expeditionary team of aliens posing as humans on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

So it’s been with my writing career. For awhile now, I made attempts at writing to the market so that I could sell my stories. My only problem? None of the books I was working on were like anything on store shelves.

I wasn’t writing purely for my own readership of one. I also wasn’t journaling. I wanted to tell stories that connected and resonated with readers.

Somehow, even though I kept trying to wrestle the giant python of my story into at least a cobra version, something told me to hold on, to wait. As I kept writing, a new technological breakthrough changed the publishing landscape for writers and readers.

The rise of e-publishers opened the door to time periods and settings that had been passed over by traditional print publishers. Suddenly, a story could be set in the West Indies in the 18th century, for example, if it was told well and featured compelling characters. Readers were no longer limited to London soirees and the Regency ton. The rise of the niche market made room for all sorts of authors to finally sell their un-sellable books.

In 2011, Amazon’s and Smashword’s self-publishing option has blown a hole so wide in the publishing world that there’s no longer any going back. I knew that it was finally time for my stories to step out and dance with the rest.

For all the other ‘me’s out there, who long for something a little different, the time is now. As a reader, as a writer—I don’t know about you, but I’m grabbing my plate and heading for the buffet.

Blurb: Saint Sanguinus

Do you want another life?

In Dark Age Wales, Peredur falls to a spear on the battlefield,but fights death to the last – until he is made an offer he can’t refuse, two fangs embedding themselves in his neck. Tanwen was his betrothed, and resists her father’s command to take another husband. When the wise woman’s son insists he can reunite her with Peredur, Tanwen must choose between a future that promises only misery, or set her on a dark path that whispers of her heart’s true desire.

Saint Sanguinus is out at Amazon next week. To learn more about Julia and her books visit her website at www.juliaphillipssmith.com

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m reading The Dark Enquiry, the latest book in Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series. I’ve quickly become a big Deanna Raybourn fan, and just love her mysteries. Her characterization is so good–she always leaves me with writer-envy and I enjoy the historical setting. I’m about a third of the way through. In this teaser, Lady Julia is dressing up as a man in order to sneak off after her husband…

The freedom from corsets was delicious, but I found the tightness of the trousers disconcerting, and when Portia came to pass judgement, she shook her head.

“They are quite fitted,” she pronounced. “You cannot take off the coat at any point, or you will be instantly known for a woman.”

page 41, The Dark Enquiry

Blurb

Partners now in marriage and in trade, Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane have finally returned from abroad to set up housekeeping in London. But merging their respective collections of gadgets, pets and servants leaves little room for the harried newlyweds themselves, let alone Brisbane’s private enquiry business.
Among the more unlikely clients: Julia’s very proper brother, Lord Bellmont, who swears Brisbane to secrecy about his case. Not about to be left out of anything concerning her beloved—if eccentric—family, spirited Julia soon picks up the trail of the investigation.

It leads to the exclusive Ghost Club, where the alluring Madame Séraphine holds evening séances…and not a few powerful gentlemen in thrall. From this eerie enclave unfolds a lurid tangle of dark deeds, whose tendrils crush reputations and throttle trust.

Shocked to find their investigation spun into salacious newspaper headlines, bristling at the tension it causes between them, the Brisbanes find they must unite or fall. For Bellmont’s sake- and more- they’ll face myriad dangers born of dark secrets, the kind men kill to keep….

Purchase The Dark Enquiry

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser today comes from Warrior (Blades of the Rose) by Zoe Archer.

Warrior (Blades of the Rose) by Zoe Archer

“In the gloom of an alleyway leading off the street, he heard it first, then saw it, the sight that turned his blood to fire and overrode all thought: one man, badly outnumered, wounded and staggering, as half a dozen men attacked him and several others stood nearby. He knew at once that what was happening was wrong, and that he had to help the injured man.”

Page 3, Warrior

Blurb:

To most people, the realm of magic is the stuff of nursery rhymes and dusty libraries. But for Capt. Gabriel Huntley, it’s become quite real and quite dangerous…

IN HOT PURSUIT…

The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the Earth and beyond—where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. And frankly, Huntley couldn’t be more pleased. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress—just what he needs.

IN HOTTER WATER…

Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, because a proper lady would have no hope of recovering the priceless magical artifact Thalia is after. Huntley’s assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn’t easy to deceive…

Purchase Warrior (Blades of the Rose)

I have a new historical romance out later today at Liquid Silver Books. It’s called A Discreet Affair and is set during World War II.

Here’s the blurb:

Summer, 1940. Britain is at war, and her brave fighter pilots attempt to keep the enemy at bay.

The last thing Pamela Allison wants is another man, especially one like her brutal, now deceased husband. Her managing mother wants her to live with her in London, but Pamela accepts a job from her aunt, working in the family store in the village near Biggin Hill.

Enter Michael Stedman, a Spitfire pilot based at the Biggin Hill airbase. Depressed and a little drunk after the death of his friend, he doesn’t expect to meet a beautiful woman during a night out at the local pub. He’s not looking for anything permanent since a pilot’s life is fraught with danger. All he wants is a little feminine company to take his mind off the war.

London is under siege by the enemy. Bombs drop every night and the danger increases for everyone. Michael and Pamela’s relationship changes and they become lovers. They are happy with their secret liaison until gossip and the past intrude and threaten to destroy everything, including her good reputation.

Purchase at Liquid Silver Books

My World War Two romance, A Discreet Affair is due out on 17 Jan from Liquid Silver Books. My story is set during the year 1940 and takes place in Biggin Hill, which isn’t far from London. Today for my TT I’m mentioning things that happened in 1940.

Thirteen Things About 1940

1. Britain started to ration butter, sugar, bacon and ham.

2. Britain starts an anti-gossip campaign.

3. Gone With The Wind featuring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh was big with movie-goers.

4. The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland was also very popular.

5. Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister of Britain.

6. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce and How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn were big among readers.

7. You Are My Sunshine and A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square were popular songs.

8. The first nylon stockings go on sale in the USA (May 15)

9. The British Government order the removal of signposts and street names.

10. The London Blitz begins on September 7.

11. People had to queue to purchase restricted goods. They had to hand over their ration books before they could purchase these goods, once they got to the front of the queue–if the goods weren’t already sold out.

12. Blackout was a fact of life. Motor vehicle accidents were very common during the blackout.

13. A Discreet Affair is due out on Monday 17 from Liquid Silver Books. The cover is just beautiful. I love it.

Blurb:

Summer, 1940. Britain is at war, and her brave fighter pilots attempt to keep the enemy at bay.

The last thing Pamela Allison wants is another man, especially one like her brutal, now deceased husband. Her managing mother wants her to live with her in London, but Pamela accepts a job from her aunt, working in the family store in the village near Biggin Hill.

Enter Michael Stedman, a Spitfire pilot based at the Biggin Hill airbase. Depressed and a little drunk after the death of his friend, he doesn’t expect to meet a beautiful woman during a night out at the local pub. He’s not looking for anything permanent since a pilot’s life is fraught with danger. All he wants is a little feminine company to take his mind off the war.

London is under siege by the enemy. Bombs drop every night and the danger increases for everyone. Michael and Pamela’s relationship changes and they become lovers. They are happy with their secret liaison until gossip and the past intrude and threaten to destroy everything, including her good reputation.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey) by Deanna Raybourn. This is book four in the Lady Julia Grey historical mystery series. It’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite series and I’m enjoying the unusual setting of India in this one. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Darjeeling so this story is bringing back great memories.

“Is it absolutely necessary to travel with so many men?” I demanded of Portia. “It looks as if we mean to claim Darjeeling in the name of the March family and establish a colony of our own. For heaven’s sake, Portia, the porters are laughing at us.”

Blurb:

After eight idyllic months in the Mediterranean, Lady Julia Grey and her detective husband are ready to put their investigative talents to work once more. At the urging of Julia’s eccentric family, they hurry to India to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish. Living on the Cavendish tea plantation with the remnants of her husband’s family, Jane is consumed with the impending birth of her child—and with discovering the truth about her husband’s death. Was he murdered for his estate? And if he was, could Jane and her unborn child be next?

Amid the lush foothills of the Himalayas, dark deeds are buried and malicious thoughts flourish. The Brisbanes uncover secrets and scandal, illicit affairs and twisted legacies. In this remote and exotic place, exploration is perilous and discovery, deadly. The danger is palpable and, if they are not careful, Julia and Nicholas will not live to celebrate their first anniversary.

Purchase Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey)

Look at my cover for The Spurned Viscountess. Isn’t it pretty?

Here’s the blurb:

She must marry him.

Cursed with the sight and rumors of witchcraft, Rosalind’s only chance at an ordinary life is marriage to Lucien, Viscount Hastings. She doesn’t expect love, only security and children of her own. Determined to go through with the wedding, she allows nothing she encounters at the gloomy Castle St. Clare to dissuade her.

He wants nothing to do with her.

Recently returned from the Continent, Lucien has no time for the English mouse his family has arranged for him to marry, not when he’s plotting to avenge the murder of his beloved Francesca. He has no intention of bedding Rosalind, not even to sire an heir.

Dark secrets will bind them.

Though spurned by her bridegroom, Rosalind turns to him for protection when she is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents and haunted by terrifying visions. Forced to keep Rosalind close, and tempted into passionate kisses, Lucien soon finds himself in grave danger of falling in love with his own wife…

The Spurned Viscountess is due out on 20 September at Carina Press.

Greetings, all! Kris Starr here. I write erotic romance and erotica, and I am so very happy to be hanging out today at Shelley’s blog – thanks, Shelley, for the opportunity!

I am also thrilled to be a Carina Press author along with Shelley and a bunch of other absolutely fabulous folks. There are some great books available from CP, so if you haven’t checked ‘em out yet, do so! My novella is called Lovely, and it’s an erotic historical set in Paris in 1900.

But I’ll get to that shortly.

Lovely launched on June 21st, and as some of you may know, I got the best launch-day gift ever. On June 22nd, I gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl. So needless to say I am slightly brain-dead as a result, and I hope you can forgive me if this blog post meanders into the realm of “WTF is she talking about??”

Shelley suggested a baby-related TT, and I figured, that’s a great idea, and hey, how hard can it be to come up with thirteen baby items?

Um, remember that brain-dead comment from earlier?

Yeah.

But I did plug along, so without further ado, here’s your Thursday Thirteen!

1. Your brain somehow atrophies with the birth of your child. Or disintegrates. Or completely vanishes. Or, or…something. Whatever it is, I forget.

2. Time becomes like something out of an episode of Star Trek – before baby arrives you’ve got more of the damned stuff than you know what to do with. You read books! Spend time on your hobbies! Linger over lunches with friends! After baby arrives you can barely squeeze in five minutes for yourself to have a shower, toss in a (neverending) load of laundry or unload the dishwasher – and which activity you choose can be determined by whether you have any underwear left, just how gross your hair has become, or if there are any plates in the cupboard.

3. You no longer have anxiety dreams about appearing naked in your high school chemistry class, late for your final exam – you now dream about forgetting/losing/dropping the baby.

4. Five straight hours of unbroken sleep is the most decadent, delightful thing on the face of the planet.

5. You can no longer go anywhere without fifteen minutes of prep time before you go out the door, and you now must lug seventy-three extra things with you. Every single time. Because if you don’t have extra diapers, wipes, burp cloths and clothing with you, you’re screwed.

6. It’s only when you’ve got the baby bundled up in a wrap/carrier that she spits up all over herself…and you.

7. Along the same vein as #6 — all known infant bodily fluids (drool, poop, pee and spitup) now become a part of your regular, everyday life and you are guaranteed to get at least one of them (more likely two or three) on you on a daily basis.

8. And along the same vein as #6 and #7 — you thank whatever higher power/spiritual being you believe in that you have access to a washer and dryer and are not required to scrub baby clothing and other items on rocks in the riverbed.

9. Just as you sit down to dinner, the baby begins to fuss. You forget just what hot food and/or eating with the rest of your family feels like.

10. Forget makeup, hairstyling and dressy clothes. Now it’s sweats and tees, ponytails or headbands and that “natural” look. For all occasions.

11. A receiving blanket or burp cloth becomes a fashion statement that goes with anything. Trust me. Bunnies, daisies and hearts are hot this season.

12. Sex? What’s that?

But most importantly…

13. There is nothing more beautiful or precious on this planet than the sweet, tiny angel asleep in your arms, and you realize every time you look at her just how lucky and blessed you really are.

And that none of the other stuff matters in the least.

Now, to Lovely…

As mentioned earlier, Lovely is set in Paris in 1900, and it’s the story of a prostitute named Angelique. Here’s the blurb:

They call me Lovely. But I know I am not.

Once I had another name. Now, as Angelique, I do what I can to please les messieurs. What would they say if they knew I felt no pleasure? To them I am wanton, insatiable. I alone know the truth.

So I am mystified by my reaction to my latest caller. Alexandre. Handsome. Well-bred. With an air of innocence that intrigues me. And true pain in his eyes. A mere kiss on the hand inflames me as never before. In moments this man disconcerts me like no other, and soon I can think of nothing, no one else. And yet, he barely touches me.

I know my true purpose is to mend his wounds, but I wonder what lustful appetites are buried deep within him. I will do what I can to discover his secrets…

Lovely is available now from Carina Press.

Well, the baby is starting to fuss in her cradle, so that means it’s time for me to wrap up. Thanks again to Shelley for having me, and I hope you’ll swing by my blog or shoot me an email and say hello or let me know what you thought of Lovely! You can also follow me on Twitter (I don’t Tweet much yet – I’m still trying to get the hang of it in general. That brain thing, y’know?).

Cheers!
Kris

Kris’ Bio:
Kris lives in the wilds of Northern Canada with her two daughters and science geek husband. She spends her time attempting to control household chaos, indulging her crafty side with various knitting, sewing and miscellaneous handmade projects, and creating stories for Carina Press and Ellora’s Cave. Kris has been writing since the age of ten, beginning with a Nancy Drew-style mystery story featuring herself and a couple of her friends. Future leanings became clear, however, when she started penning naughty stories for high-school friends, featuring Scott Baio, Rick Springfield or any member of Duran Duran.

Kris’ blog
Twitter ID
Kris’ email

CONTEST: Everyone who comments on Kris’s post will go into a draw to win a download of Lovely. Tell us about your baby memories, comment on Kris’s baby thirteen or about her new release, Lovely